Tin collection front and center
The Hortons remodeled their shop, adding a check out counter on the south wall and new shelves with swing-out doors to display many of the spice and tobacco tins.
Days Gone By Antiques in Choteau is currently home to one of the largest collections of vintage tins and canisters in the state — a collection so unique and varied that business owners Paul and Donna Horton have remodeled their display area to accommodate the vast array of collectibles.
During a recent interview, Paul Horton said the collection includes approximately 2,100 pieces, most of which are product tins that used to contain tobacco, coffee, spices and dry goods. Other pieces are tin signs, cardboard store displays for products, pocket mirrors, recipe booklets, German pipes, rare books and tobacco paraphernalia.
“This is absolutely the best collection of tobacco tins and tins in Montana and maybe in the region,” Paul Horton said.
His wife, Donna, said, “When people come in, they are just in awe.”
The Hortons were friends of the grandson of the collector, who died last year at age 89, and left his sizeable collection to the grandson. After picking out some favorites, the grandson then consigned the rest of the collection to the Hortons to sell through Days Gone By.
Days Gone By Antiques owner Paul Horton stands in the new barnwood showroom, built in the middle of his store, to help display a huge array of collectible tins and tin signs.
Paul Horton said the collector and his wife traveled every summer across the country for nearly 50 years, looking for mint-condition vintage tins. “He knew tins very well and he wanted the high-end items,” Paul said. “He was constantly upgrading his collections.”
The collection includes tiny tobacco tins plus large canisters that held such things as marshmallows. There are perfume tins, popcorn tins, small tin pails that held peanut butter, and much more. The Hortons have so far taken and displayed about 1,400 pieces of the collection and have probably another 700 pieces in storage yet to be put up for sale.
Some of the more unique items in the collection include roly-poly canisters, used to store Dixie Queen Plug Cut Tobacco back in the 1930s. These tins now sell for $300 to $500 each. Other tobacco-related items include Prince Albert, Union Leader and Lucky Strike pieces.
Another rare item is the Franklin Coffee tin, rated as a 9 on a quality scale of 1 to 10. This tin will bring from $400 to $800.
Referring to the same quality scale, Paul said of the collection, “It’s almost all from 8 to 10. It’s just a quality collection.”
Most of the tins date back to the early 1900s though some may be even older. The array of spice tins include the brands of Durkees, Crescent, Knox, Pocono and others. One of the high-end pieces is a rare Busy Biddy brand 1.5-ounce dry mustard tin that will sell for about $150.
Paul said the attraction for tin collectors is usually the beautiful, artistic graphics that adorn the cans; the graphics plus the condition and the limited numbers of the tins all play into the selling price. “Graphics are at least half of it and then the rarity kicks in for the other half,” he said, holding up a G.F. Foster’s allspice tin bearing the Parrot brand logo on the front.
Donna said, “You can’t get things made like that today.”
Paul said a more common tin, such as a grade 9 Caswell’s Coffee tin, would only fetch about $50.
The Hortons said they spent at least six months cataloguing the collection and researching the appropriate price for each piece.
To display the collection, the Hortons added a new glass-topped and fronted showcase and built a new checkout counter against the shop’s south wall. Paul then built a wall display case along the south wall that includes double-sided swing-out doors. Most of the smaller tobacco-related items are in the glass display case while many of the smaller tins are in the wall display.
With help from family friend Dick Storment, the Hortons also built out of old barnwood a new show room in the center of the store. “It was quite the project,” Paul said. The barnwood show room allows the larger tins and many of the tin signs to be tastefully displayed in a rustic setting. “We get a lot of wows when people come in,” he said, adding “ They may not be into tins, not everyone is, but they appreciate the effect. ... People spend hours in here just looking.”
Many of the tin signs on display in the show room are very rare and valuable. One, a DuPont gun powder advertisement, is listed for $1,895. Paul noted that the rare signs have sold briskly though, “We still have quite a few cool ones.”
The Hortons plan to keep the tin collection at front and center in their store for at least a couple of years. Items that are not moving after that time, they may post on e-Bay or sell through live auctions on the Internet. Paul said the store has done very well so far without extensive advertising though they did put out statewide advertisements prior to Mother’s Day.
The tin collection isn’t the only thing that’s new at Days Gone By Antiques. Storment has also created his third window display for the store. He started the window displays with a showing of his own extensive Howdie Doody memorabilia collection. Then he created a U.S. presidents display and now his collection of First Ladies history and memorabilia is on display in the big bay windows.
Storment says the items in this display are not overly unique, but are interesting and provide history and information on the women who served as First Ladies and White House hostesses during the early days of the nation. This display will remain up for several weeks until it is changed out for a Fourth of July-themed display this summer.
Days Gone By Antiques welcomes browsers, shoppers and any visitors. The store hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday.
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